1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to a fastening tape for a hygiene item, said hygiene item and a method for producing a fastening tape for a hygiene item. In particular, the invention relates to a fastening tape for a baby diaper or for an incontinency diaper, said baby diaper or incontinency diaper and a method for producing such diapers.
2. Description of the Prior Art Opening the fastening tape on a diaper to put the diaper on or take it off, involves gripping an end of the fastening tape using one's fingers and pulling the fastening tape away from the surface of the diaper that cooperates with the tape or away from a release tape on the surface of the diaper. As a result, a fastening tape often has a protruding section which extends as the “free end” beyond the closing area of the tape. EP 0 840 585 B1 discloses that for fastening tapes with a closing area and a protruding section it is especially favorable from a manufacturing standpoint to make a wavy cut along the machine transport direction to sever the strips of tape during production. The wavy cut results in a tape having a wavy end with a plurality of wavy heads, with a protruding section being formed on each wavy head on the wavy end of the tape.
Before the initial use in particular, the diaper fastening tapes are affixed very securely to the diaper or to a similar surface due to the manufacturing process. Diapers can also be closed relatively securely, in particular in the case of incontinency diapers. Then the user's fingertips can easily slip away from the protruding sections gripped by the fingers. To avoid this, the fingers must be pressed relatively tightly against the protruding tape to be able to reliably grip the diaper fastening tape and/or be able to open the diaper reliably.
To improve security in gripping the protruding sections, numerous attempts have been made so far. For example, Japanese Patent Application JP 62-142825 (Patent No. JP 8-2365) has proposed that an edge of the protruding section should be folded over. Additionally or alternatively, a small line of glue may be provided there. In similar approaches, heat seal adhesive surfaces applied by nozzles on the protruding section have also been proposed.
According to other proposals, a hook material of the closing area is also applied to the edge of the fastening tape. According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,389, a continuous hook surface is provided from the closing area to the end of the tape whose hooks are thermally and mechanically flattened toward the edge or are cut flat toward the edge to permit more reliable haptic feedback in gripping the tape. However, according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,429, the same or similar hooks are provided on the protruding section as in the closing area or the cut-off stumps thereof, whereby a lower density of hooks per unit of area should be provided in the protruding area. In both cases, the respective hooks are arranged on a single backing surface and/or film.